With the Capitals and their AHL affiliate Hershey Bears out of action until Saturday night, the Caps have re-assigned defenseman Connor Carrick to the Bears.

Carrick, 21, was recalled by the Caps on Thursday but did not play in a game for the club.

He has recorded 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) and 32 penalty minutes in 26 games with Hershey (AHL) this season.

Carrick’s assignment leaves the Caps with 13 healthy forwards, including Stan Galiev, and six healthy defensemen.

Carrick ranks second among AHL defensemen in goals this season and ranks second among Bears skaters in points, tied for second in plus-minus (plus-5) and third in goals. He has scored five goals in his last six games with the Bears and is the only AHL defenseman to record a shootout-winning goal this season.

In 112 career AHL games with Hershey, Carrick has tallied 61 points (16 goals, 45 assists) and 179 penalty minutes.

The Caps are back in action Saturday night when the Montreal Canadiens visit Verizon Center, while the Bears return to action at home against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

It’s happened. The Caps no longer seem to have a No. 1 goalie anymore, they have a No. 1 and 1a.

That’s right, we have a goalie rotation in Washington.

“There's no sense riding one,” Barry Trotz said after practice on Monday. “[Braden Holtby] is coming back and looking better every game and [Philipp Grubauer] played pretty well for a long stretch so why not have both of them going?”

Grubauer got the start Sunday in Philadelphia and Holtby is slated to get the start Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. After that we will have to wait and see.

Trotz has no layout for which goalie he wants to start and when in the remaining ten games. He is not thinking about each goalie splitting five games or which one he wants to use more.

Nope. Trotz has just one thing on his mind. It is all about who starts the next game, that’s it.

“I think you just go with a guy that's hot at the time and your team feels comfortable with and go from there,” Trotz said.

So where does this leave the goaltending situation when it comes to the playoffs? A goalie rotation is all well and good in the regular season, but he has to have one starter for the postseason, right?

When Trotz was asked if he philosophically believed in having one starter for the playoffs, Trotz initially said he would not answer, but then said, “Why don't you ask Mike Sullivan what he thinks.”

Sullivan, of course, is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins who has led his team to a Stanley Cup in each of the past two seasons despite turning to both goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray in both seasons.

While Pittsburgh’s goalie rotation was largely based on injury, however, it still provides an example of how using both goalies can work in the playoffs and that seems to be the path the Caps are headed on at the moment.

Said Trotz, “You just have to go with your gut who you think is going to get the job done.”

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NHL Power Rankings: The home stretch

NHL Power Rankings: The home stretch

We are down to the home stretch. Only 10 games remain in the Capitals' regular season. Those 10 games will ultimately decide if the Caps finish in first place in the Metropolitan Division and who they will play in the first round of the playoffs.

Washington currently sits in first place in the division, two points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and four points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers. Of those 10 remaining games, only three come against teams currently in playoff position. The most critical of these comes on April 1 when the Caps travel to Pittsburgh in a game that could ultimately decide the division.